Win in hometown special to Charlo
About 10 minutes after beating Brandon Adams by unanimous decision and conducting an interview full of bravado for the Showtime TV cameras, Jermall Charlo let the emotions out.
Charlo was in a back room at NRG Arena on Saturday night, waiting on the commencement of the post-fight news conference. Some family members and friends shouted their approval for what they just witnessed, and Charlo bowed his head. After briefly covering his face with his hands, he asked trainer Ronnie Shields for a towel to wipe away his unexpected tears.
The moment — defending his World Boxing Council middleweight title in front of an adoring sellout crowd of 6,408in the first fight in his hometown in seven years — had finally gotten to Charlo.
“It was like tears of joy,” said Charlo, who grew up in Alief. “It feels good when you really did it. It feels good when you do what you dreamed of doing. It was an amazing fight, and it was something the fans loved.”
Despite his being well-known in boxing circles, there was some doubt as to whether Jermall or his twin brother Jermell, who together own Lions Only Promotions, had the drawing power to fill an arena as the main name on the card. Jermall was so desperate to defend his title in Houston for the first time that in the weeks leading up to the fight, he said: “I don’t care if we fight in the park
ing lot where Astroworld used to be.”
Packing a proper arena should make it more likely that both Jermall and Jermell will fight more often in Houston.
“Man, they could have put it at a bigger arena, and it still would
have sold out,” Jermall said. “It was a great night of boxing. They finally got a chance to see boxing in Houston. They need to keep putting fights in Houston. Lions Only is about to do big things in this city, me and my brother.”
Charlo (29-0) beat Adams (21-3) convincingly — two judges had him winning every round with scores of 120-108, while one judge scored it 119-109 — but he was unable to finish the former winner of “The Contender” TV series. Charlo and Shields attributed that partly to a left hand injury, suffered midway through the second round, that forced Charlo to fight more on the outside the rest of the fight.
After the fight, Charlo turned his attention to bigger fights, especially one against top box-office draw Canelo Alvarez, who owns two of the middleweight belts. A meeting with Demetrius Andrade, who is the World Boxing Organization champion, also would be intriguing.
In the post-fight news conference, world welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., a good friend of the Charlo brothers, masqueraded as a reporter and asked what Charlo would need to do to stop Canelo “from ducking you.”
“That’s a great question,” Charlo said to his friend with a laugh. “In order for me to get this fight with Canelo, I’m going to need all my fans, all of this team I have with me to put in a good word. He’s going to have to fight me eventually. I’m 29-0.”